The once and future king of stylized hyper-violent video games is back. The mobile version of Mortal Kombat X, published by Warner Brothers Interactive and developed by NetherRealm, is now ready to download in the Google Play Store after a lengthy geo-limited soft launch. It features high-end graphics and a 2D fighting system based mostly on taps, swipes, charges, and other gestures, very much like NetherRealm's previous mobile fighters Injustice: Gods Among Us and WWE Immortals.

The basic structure uses collectible upgradeable "cards" as stand-ins for the iconic fighters, encouraging players to find and upgrade personalized versions of the over-the-top characters (as opposed to a more conventional static roster). The mobile version of MKX also includes tag-team modes with up to four fighters on a side, online multiplayer, and unlocked functionality for the full console and PC version of the game. It goes without saying that this game is amazingly violent and absolutely not intended for children. For that matter, it's not intended for adults who would be upset by seeing someone slice a man's face off and then stomp on his brain after it slides out of his skull.

The game will let you find new fighters and variants of the ones you already have (like "Farmer Jax" or "Ninja Mime Johnny Cage"), then upgrade their skills and add augmented equipment. As with all of these kinds of games, you upgrade and buy new characters with a currency (or rather kurrency) system. You can pay for multiple types of in-game currency, some of which is also applied to the "power" timer, or you can straight-up pay for cards/characters. The in-app purchases in this game are at least as excessive as the violence - PocketGamer estimated that it would take almost $300 of real-world money to buy all the characters available in the iOS version, and that's without equipment or skill upgrades.

Let's switch over to editorial for a moment. Earlier this month Google refused to publish Postal, the 1997 shoot-em-up that caused controversy for its glorified violence. (Amazon blocked the game as well, despite selling a modern digital edition of the PC version, before reversing the decision for the Amazon Appstore.) The Google Play Store does have a policy forbidding games with "gratuitous real violence," but rates games with "graphic violence" as High Maturity. The distinction between Postal and Mortal Kombat X, not to mention previously-published games like the Grand Theft Auto series, seems artificial at best.

To be fair, the violence in Mortal Kombat is graphic, but not realistic. The camera zooms in and through bodies to show bones breaking and organs ripping, so while it's certainly graphic (even disturbingly so in my opinion), it could be compared with the kind of fantasy violence you see in B-grade horror movies. But by that standard, you could say that the violence in games like Modern Combat is "realistic" - the weapons are based on real guns, and you're shooting representations of real people in the head. What makes that OK while Postal, which "stars" a psychopathic civilian rather than a soldier, gets kicked out?

This is apparently more objectionable that slicing someone's face off.

The answer is perspective. The images and sounds in Postal are evocative of a mass shooting, the stuff of breathless cable news reports and parental nightmares. In short, it's disturbing in its implication, not just in its imagery. The pixelated, low-resolution graphics of Postal aren't scary in the slightest when compared with Mortal Kombat, to say nothing of the hundreds of blood-soaked zombie games on the Play Store. But that creates a dilemma: Google is presumably censoring its game content based on its own judgment of the intent of the creators and the interpretation of the player, which can't be quantified, rather than the actual violence on the screen, which can.

If we cast our net even wider, we see huge discrepancies between what's OK to show in an app or game and what's OK on the Play Store in general. You can buy movies and TV shows on Google Play that feature "R" levels of violence and beyond. Explicit books and music lyrics are A-OK. Non-app content can even feature nudity and sex, something that will get any app (in any context) thrown off of the Store. For a direct comparison to the "graphic realistic violence" in Postal, look no further than the 2012 movie God Bless America. It's about a middle-aged man and a teenage girl who cross the country shooting unarmed people who annoy them. The opening scene features the main character shooting a baby with a shotgun. You can buy it on the Google Play Store for $12.99.

Google owns the Play Store. It is free to block whatever content it wants - this is not an issue of free speech. But Google is deciding which content you can and can't access on its platform, which carries with it a responsibility to be even-handed. Allowing a game like Mortal Kombat X on the Play Store while shunning Postal is hypocritical, it's inconsistent, and it's a mistake.

They are brutal af. More brutal than any other game I'd played before, including MK.

Ged Wolff

I can't speak for this version, but MK:X on the PS4 is the most violent I have ever seen it. it's great. The brutalities are probably my favourite though.

Hellbender519

Most of the iconic ones on the mkx console (like scorpion slicing off zero's face) are here, but less pronounced and shown off. I guess that's more due to Warner Brother's influence on the game. Its disappointing they didnt focus on "manual" combos like on the console, but you can only do so much on a smartphone. And that its freaking MK on mobile (finally!)

PartySmasher

Jesus fucking christ why does AP have such a raging hard on for Postal?! Once again, the difference between the gore in Postal and the gore in Mortal Kombat is that in Mortal Kombat, it's all fantasy, in Postal you are killing civilians who will often beg for their lives. See there's a big context difference, or maybe me and another dozen commentors will have to point that out before you finally drop the issue.
In regards to the movie in question, yes, I agree that games are in many ways an art form in the same way films are but it could also be stated that the difference in films and games are that movies are passive entertainment while games actively involve the player and are therefor more immersive and can theoretically be more impacful in both a positive and a negative way.

I covered every one of these points in the editorial section. I don't particularly like either Postal OR Mortal Kombat, but Google allowing one and not the other is ridiculous. Even if you take the context angle, Grand Theft Auto lets you murder screaming, running pedestrians (and indeed encourages you to do so in the Rampage portions of the games). This is a judgement call on Google's part, and it's inconsistent as hell.

PartySmasher

Ok, maybe I shouldn't be so harsh on you guys but I'll be honest, I REALLY fucking hate Postal and I hate seeing it being defended so much but what struck me is that I opened this link to learn about whether I should download Mortal Kombat, I'm enjoying myself, reading along with your article and then BAM, a huge wall of text that just scream "HEY! HEY! HEY! G00GL3 WONT LET YOU DOWNLOAD POSTAL BUTTT YOU CAN DOWNL0AD MORTAL KOMBAT AND DATS NOT FAIIIRRRS" despite that you just wrote a huge article about this like a week or so ago.

fcjan

"I REALLY fucking hate Postal and I hate seeing it being defended so much"
Thanks for being objective about this.

Postal 2 is where it's at. That's a fun game to this day... throwing scissors at cops, shooting cats with a shotgun jammed up their ass, lighting kids on fire and then pissing on their burning corpses... all in glorious first-person. And let's not forget throwing down against Gary Coleman and Krotchy!

Yeah, but go ahead and have an issue with the first Postal just because people beg in it. Google screwed the pooch on this one, plain and simple.

Ok, I stand corrected. I do remember you can do what I described to adults at least... which I guess is better anyway because I'd never do that to a kid but there are certain adults... no, no, never mind, burning *anyone* and pissing on their corpse is bad... gotta remember that since my therapist made a big stink about it ;)

Miku is Best Vocaloid

I can get the full Cannibal Corpse discography on Play Music and that shit is more violent than anything in Postal or Mortal Kombat. They talk about killing, rape, murder and Stripping Raping and Strangling. And I love it. Seriously, Google shouldn't have such double standards with the things they sell.

Now I feel like listening to Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt.

Suicide_Note

To be fair, CC could be singing about the location of the Holy Grail, my mum's egg nog recipe, or confidential info from Area 51, and no one would be able to tell the difference. lol